Method of cutting sheets or shoulders of sole-leather into strips for welting.



v H. LYON. METHOD OF CUTTING SHEETS 0R SHOULDERS 0F SOLE LEATHER INTOSTRIPS FOR WELTING.

APPLICATION man OCT/I3, ms.

1,179,]. 19. Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

, N \/E NTU H/ARRy LymN "WWW ATT R 5Y5 1 usually called shoulders.

' the leather.

HARRY LYON, 0E ERooKToN, MASSACHUSETTS," ASSI'GNOR To JOHN 'A."'EAR B0URAND PERLEY E. BARIBOUR, BOTH or BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS, DOING BUSINESSAS COPARTNERS UNDER THE NAME or BRocKToN RAND COMPANY.

METHOD OF oUTTING SHEETS 0R SHoULnERS 0E SOLE-LEATHER INTO STRIPS 30RWELTING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

Application filed October 13, 1915. Serial No. 55,637.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY LYON, a citizen of the United States, residingat Brockton, in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and use ful Improvements in Methods of Cutting Sheets orShoulders of Sole-Leather into Strips for Welting, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of welting for boots andShoes, from the.

irregularly shaped sheets of sole leather A shoulder of tanned soleleather has one relatively long edge presenting an irregular re'ntrantcurve. It has been customary heretofore to subdivide a shoulder intostrips or blanks, eachwide enough for several welts, by curved cuts, thefirst cut following as closely as possible the re'ntrant curvature ofthe longer edge, and the succeeding cuts being as nearly parallel withthe first cut as is ossible, each blank being subsequently subdividedinto welt strips of operative width. This method of subdividing weltstrips involves a considerable Waste of leather, and other objections,as more fully described hereinafter.

My invention has for its object to obviate the objections to the saidprior method, and it consists in the improvements which Twill nowproceed to describe and claim.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, thefigure represents a side view of a sheet or Shoulder of sole leather,and illustrates my improved tice to subdivide the shoulder into blanksby first making a curved out following the edge as closely as possible,and then making a series of curved cuts substantially parallel with thefirst out, each cut extending through theentire lengthand thickness ofThese cuts have been necessarily made by a hand-operated knife makingthe cut progressively. The depth of the curve of the edge I) varies tosuch an extent in different shoulders that it is impossible to form acurved out which is exactly parallel with and at an exactlypredetermined distance from the next cut. For this reason, it is notpossible to subdivide a shoulder by curved cuts, into Strips each of thewidth required for an operative welt, without more or less waste ofmaterial in the shape of narrow Waste strips or trimmings at one' edgeof the strip, and it has therefore been necessary heretofore to makeeach strip or blank of a width sufficient for several Welts, usuallyfour or more, and to subsequently subdivide the blank into welt strips,the operation being attended with more or less Waste of material.

It is important that the ends of a welt strip be accurately formed atright angles with its longitudinal edges in order that blanks, and incutting away imperfect portions such as are due to Slaughter cuts in theleather. Further waste of leather is due to the fact that the blankshave to be cut Wider than the aggregate width of the Welt strips intowhichthey are subdivided, so that in forming the welt strips narrowwaste strips or strings are produced. Moreover, the

shrinkage-of a relatively wide strip or blank is often such that thepredetermiiied number of full width welt strips cannot be produced froma blank, at least one of the welt strips having to be of reduced width.

To...overcome" the objections above recited, I-cut ashoulder asindicated in the drawing, my preferred mode of prpcedure being asfollows: I first remove the marginal portion having the edge I) by astraight out 10 10,

thus forming a straight base edge on the strip, said edge beingapproximately paral:

lel with a portion of the edge 6. After removing-the marginal portion 11separated from the shoulder by the cut 10 10, I proceed to subdivide thebody of the shoulder by a series of straight cuts 12 12 into relativelynarrow straight edged strips 13, each of which may be of the widthrequired for an operative welt strip, although I prefer to make eachstrip 13 of a width which is a multiple of the width of a single weltstrip and. subsequently subdivide it into a plurality of welt strips ofoperative width and without waste of material by a straight out or cutsl4 11, as indicated by dotted lines, Each straight out 10-10 may beconveniently formed by an elongated knife forming the entire cut at oneoperation, and each out forms a base edge which is a factor in thedetermination of the direction of the out next formed, said edge beingadapted to cooperate with suitable gaging means, so that the successivebase edges may be accurately formed, each at an exactly predetermineddistance from the next. The removed portion 11 may be similarlysubdivided, as indicated. The straight edged welt strips thus producedare adapted to be joined together or spliced without formingprojections, shoulders or slight angles at the joints. All waste in theform of edge trimmings or strings is eliminated as above described. Thewaste of material involved by the improved method of cutting is furtherreduced, as will be apparent from a comparison of the shaded portions inFig. 2 with those in Fig. 1, the reduction of waste being noticeable notonly at the marginal portions of the shoulder but also in the vicinityof a slaughter cut 7', back wrinkles g, or other imperfections in thebody of the shoulder.

When the strips 13 are of only double the width of a single welt strip,the shrinkage of the strips 13 does not noticeably affect the width ofthe ultimate welt strips.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. The improvement in the method of cutting into welting a shoulder ofsole leather presenting an irregular reentrant curve at one edge, whichconsists in severing said shoulder on astraight line approximatelyparallel with the major portion of said curve, and completing thecutting by severing portions on opposite sides of the initial cut into aseries of welt strips.

2. An improvement in the method of cutting into welting a shoulder ofsole leather presenting an irregular reentrant curve at one edge, whichconsists in severing said shoulder on a straight line adjacent the majorportion of the reentrant curve, and completing the cutting by severingportions on opposite sides of the initial cut into a series of weltstrips.

3. An improvement in the method of cutting into welting a shoulder ofsole leather presenting an irregular reentrant curve at one edge, whichconsists in severing said shoulder on a straight line approximatelyparallel with the major portion of said curve, and completing thecutting by severing portions on opposite sides of the initial cut into aseries of welt strips, said cuts being spaced to form relatively widestrips the width of which is a multiple of the width of an operativewelt strip, and then subdividing said wide strips into operative weltstrips.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

HARRY LYON.

